


This is Family

by reeby10



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death mentioned, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Takes Place Between S1 and S2, Team as Family, welcome to the team party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 06:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: “The team’s throwing a party for you,” she says, and he instinctively grimaces a little. She nods in sympathy. “But it’s fine if you’re not up for that! I can tell them you want to be alone. Or… whatever.”





	This is Family

**Author's Note:**

> I was originally writing this as a treat for someone for YJFest, but it's sat in my folder for the past like two years so I decided I needed to just finish it and post it lol

Garfield looks into the room, his new room, with barely contained despair. It’s not the room or the place that’s the problem, not really — M’gann has called it home for years, so it can’t be too bad — but it’s not _his_ home. Not really. He doesn’t have a home anymore.

He startles at the hand on his shoulder and turns to see M’gann standing there. Her smile looks strained, but he appreciates that she doesn’t say anything about the tears he quickly wipes from his eyes. That’s why she’s his favorite pseudo sister. At least he has her still, so he’s not entirely without family.

“The team’s throwing a party for you,” she says, and he instinctively grimaces a little. She nods in sympathy. “But it’s fine if you’re not up for that! I can tell them you want to be alone. Or… whatever.”

Garfield takes a moment to think, tail twitching a little. In all honesty, he’s not sure he wants a welcome to the team party, not right now. He’s happy to be on the team of course, and especially happy that he’ll be training and fighting alongside his big sis. But he’s afraid it’s too much too soon. His chest aches with sadness, remembering that the only reason he’s here so young is that he has nowhere else to go.

As much as it hurts, he thinks about what his mom would say about this. She’d roll her eyes about him being surrounded by superheroes probably. But she’d be happy for him, having friends, having people to take care of him. She’d always been supportive of what he wanted to do, even if she didn’t quite understand it, even after he’d changed thanks to M’gann’s blood transfusion.

“I’ll- I’ll go for a little while,” he finally says, and can’t help but smile at the way it makes M’gann’s entire countenance brighten a little. “I can’t promise I’ll stay for long, you know, but I wanna see everyone.”

M’gann nods and reaches down to take his hand and lead him down the hallway. It makes him feel warm inside, to have his sister watching out for him like this, to have her as a comforting presence at his side. He’s never been more glad for the accident that tied them together as blood siblings years ago.

The team begins cheering as soon as they walk through the doorway, and it only takes a moment before he’s surrounded by his happy, smiling teammates. He goes along with it as best he can, letting them pat him on the back and hand him plates of homemade cookies. They seem excited to have him here, at least, and he doesn’t want to let them down.

It takes a while before there’s a lull that allows him to move to the outskirts of the crowd. He has a drink in his hand, but it’s more to have something to do with his hands. He thinks for a moment about changing into something, anything, to get away. It would be nice to just fly off, let all his pain and worry and sadness drift away on the ocean breeze for a few minutes or hours.

Just as he’s decided to do that, he notices Zatanna approaching him. She looks more somber than anyone else, and for a moment he has a worry that something terrible has happened. She must see his reaction because she just shakes her head a little before leaning up against the wall beside him.

It’s quiet for several minutes, or at least as quiet as it can by while everyone else is still partying just a dozen or so feet away. Garfield’s not sure what to say, if Zatanna wants to talk or just to escape the noise or what. Finally, though, she edges a little closer, dark eyes serious.

“I know what it’s like to- to lose a parent,” she says softly. That isn’t really what he was expecting her to say, but there’s also an edge of pain there that he hadn’t expected either.

He remembers suddenly what M’gann had said in passing one day, that Zatanna had lost her father to Doctor Fate before coming to the team. It was probably the reason she joined the team, just like him. He thinks that she, more than any of the rest of them, can maybe understand how hard this is for him.

“I’m sorry about your dad,” he offers, unsure about what else he can say. He hasn’t cared for any of the platitudes he’s been offered since his mom died, and he really doesn’t think she’d care for them either. “I know that’s not, like, going to make it better but.”

She nods again, a gentler smile growing on her face, and suddenly he finds himself enveloped in a hug. It takes him a moment to react, but then he’s holding on as tightly as he can, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. Even with all the hugs he’s gotten from M’gann lately, this is really nice too. It’s a comfort he hadn’t really known he’d needed, that of a teammate who really knows what he’s going through.

“Hey! Where’s my hug?”

They pull apart to see Wally standing a few feet away, a mock frown on his face and his hands on his hips. Garfield can feel his lips twitch into an involuntary smile and he opens his arms. A split second later Wally is there, hugging with all of his strength. Face pressed into the older boy’s shoulder, Garfield can vaguely hear as the others come closer, and soon there are more hands and arms around him.

It’s more of a dogpile than a hug, really, but Garfield can’t find it in himself to be upset about that. It’s actually really nice to be in the middle of all his teammates and their almost overbearing enthusiasm in comforting him, despite the slight awkwardness of being pressed between half a dozen bodies. He’ll take what he can get, especially when they seem so happy about it.

When everyone’s broken away and returned to eating and drinking and playing around, Garfield’s left to catch his breath. His face hurts a little from smiling, but this time it’s a good hurt. He’s got a team behind him that’s going to support him all the ways. He thinks, just maybe, it’s all going to be ok.


End file.
